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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In addition to form and texture, what does the author believe influences beauty?
(a) color
(b) perception
(c) time of day
(d) time

2. What does Dillard say happens the moment you are aware of the present?
(a) you lose it
(b) it freezes
(c) it becomes the past
(d) it no longer matters

3. What does Dillard suggest is a similarity between her and plankton?
(a) they both carry stuff on their back
(b) they are both unaware of what they're doing
(c) they both live in or near Tinker Creek
(d) they both live alone

4. How does Dillard think of Tinker Creek in the first chapter?
(a) as an anchor that keeps her steady in the current of life
(b) as a scary, mysterious place
(c) that she'd rather live somewhere else
(d) as a place that time forgot

5. How are Eskimos able to survive in such a harsh environment as theirs?
(a) their igloos are kept very warm
(b) they wear seal fur
(c) they had to possess an intimate understanding of their natural world
(d) they eat a lot of whale

Short Answer Questions

1. What is it about weather that Dillard believes is a phenomena worth writing about?

2. How do mice reach the grain at the top of a stalk?

3. What sport does the author play come spring?

4. How do honey bees survive the cold of winter?

5. In Alaska and northern Canada during winter what is a topic of continual fascination?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do you think this chapter could have been titled "Potential?"

2. What is the correlation Dillard sees between time and the search for God?

3. When Dillard scrapes the wings of a couple dead butterflies, what might this symbolize?

4. Why does Dillard question both the morality and the compassion of nature?

5. Dillard discusses the concept of the world as being "old and ragged." How does she relate that to the natural world and her own life?

6. What does Dillard say about the trauma of people blind since birth who get their sight?

7. This Chapter is called "Fixed." What are some of Dillard's observations and thoughts that illustrate this title?

8. In Chapter 12, Dillard observes the world at night. Considering the grasshoppers leads her into thoughts of locusts. How did early people see locusts, and where does Dillard's thoughts on them lead?

9. How does Dillard tie in Moses with her observations at Tinker Creek?

10. In Chapter 3, what has the reader learned about Dillard's attitude towards living creatures?

(see the answer keys)

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